Forney, a quarterback for most of the last two seasons, told Woodard he plans to play football at Lamar University for the 2011 season.

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound Forney gave Woodard his verbal commitment with a phone call Thursday morning and will make his commitment official Feb. 2, the first day a high school senior can sign a letter of intent to play football.

Forney said he has also been invited to join the Lamar men's basketball team by coach Steve Roccaforte.

NCAA rules prohibit coaches from talking about a recruit until he is signed, so neither Woodard nor Roccaforte can talk in public about Forney.

Forney is the first Southeast Texan in the high school class of 2011 to verbally commit to Lamar for football. He is a two-sport star at Nederland. He played three seasons on the varsity football team and was the District 20-4A basketball player of the year as a junior, playing center for the Bulldogs.

Forney hopes to play quarterback in college because that's been a dream since middle school, when he first played the position, but he will move to another position if that puts him on the field. He also played tight end and defensive end at Nederland.

Forney said other colleges talked with him about playing tight end. Only Lamar and Texas-El Paso gave the option of playing quarterback. Lamar is the only school to give Forney a written offer, he said.

"Coach Woodard has been on me pretty hard, and the basketball team over there has been on me pretty hard since I was in eighth grade," Forney said. "The decision came last night when I talked to my dad. We prayed on it to make the best decision. Coach Woodard offered more than what most other colleges offered. I can play quarterback at Lamar and I can play basketball too."

Of the 11 former high school quarterbacks recruited by Woodard to Lamar, at least nine have played or practiced at other positions.

Starting wide receiver Marcus Jackson played quarterback at Tyler Lee. Freshmen defensive backs Chad Allen (Coldspring) and Payton Ploch (Dayton) also played quarterback in high school and played in all 11 games for Lamar last season.

Forney figures to be one of a select handful of high school players committing to Lamar for the 2011 season. A majority of Lamar's recruiting class will be junior college players, Woodard said.

Woodard has 55 players under some sort of scholarship, either full or partial, for 2011. The NCAA allows Football Championship Subdivision schools such as Lamar to distribute 63 scholarships over 85 players. Lamar currently has only four juniors-to-be on scholarship.

Lamar football recently completed its first season since 1989. The Cardinals ended the season with a 5-6 record and a two-game win streak.